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At ReadWorks, we are committed to building background knowledge and vocabulary necessary to support strong readers. As part of this commitment, we take the information we include in our texts extremely seriously. To ensure the accuracy of the information, we have a rigorous sourcing and fact-checking process in place for every new non-fiction text we write. What does fact-checking at ReadWorks look like in practice?First, we focus on sources. From the first draft of an article through its final fact check and publication, diligent sourcing is a requirement. Throughout this process, we make sure to use credible sources, paying close attention to possible biases or opinion statements within them. We also consult sources that come directly from authentic voices that accurately represent the people, topics, and places that our texts cover. This is a crucial part of our writing and fact-checking processes, and it ensures high-quality, culturally sensitive, and carefully researched texts on wide-ranging subjects. We fact-check our drafts claim by claim, sentence by sentence. Every claim or stated fact in a draft text gets checked against two additional credible sources that can corroborate the information, beyond the sources used to draft the text. That means that if a claim isn’t supported by at least three different credible sources, it doesn’t make it onto our site. For direct quotes (from interviews, biographies, etc.), the wording is confirmed with original media and primary sources. Our writing and fact-checking processes also include careful and thoughtful research to ensure a broad understanding of a text’s topic. While fact-checking, one major goal is to check for what is missing—whether there are any gaps in claims or stated facts and whether the framing is appropriate and unbiased. This wider research also helps us to confirm that terminology or jargon is being used correctly. Creating well-researched, dependable texts is a team effort. Our expert editorial team collaborates on each new text across the writing, revision, and fact-checking processes in order to catch imprecisions, omissions, or other content issues before a text is published. In addition to applying these processes to the new texts we write, we are simultaneously conducting a review of older texts in our library. Our goal is to ensure that all of our texts remain factually accurate, up-to-date, and sensitive by current standards. The result of all this meticulous work is a library of texts that are not only engaging and grade-appropriate, but also reliable as sources of information and foundations for building further knowledge. Trust what you teach. Explore ReadWorks’ library of free, fact-checked, research-based texts and bring quality content into your classroom today. 🔗 Start exploring now at ReadWorks.org Written by:
Manjula Raman, ReadWorks Senior Director of Content & Curriculum, and Senior DEI Coordinator and Paola Yuli, Content Specialist
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Strengthening Reading Comprehension Through Word Recognition: A Webinar with ReadWorks and UFLI7/22/2025 In the national conversation about literacy, one truth is clear: strong word recognition is foundational to deep reading comprehension. That’s why ReadWorks was honored to co-host a webinar with the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI), bringing together two trusted voices in reading instruction to explore how decoding and comprehension go hand-in-hand in the classroom. The webinar, titled “Decodable, not Predictable: New ReadWorks/ UFLI-Aligned Decodables" brings together experts and educators to bridge the gap between what the research says and what students need every day.  Even if you can’t attend live, we encourage you to register--we’ll send the full webinar recording straight to your inbox, so you can watch it anytime that works for you.
A Quick Tech Check for Your Admin or IT Team
As you plan your reading instruction this year, we want to make sure ReadWorks is easy for your students to access from day one. ReadWorks is 100% free and accessible on any device with internet access, but sometimes school or district filters block websites by default until they’re reviewed by the tech team. Big News Coming in August! ReadWorks will be a certified ClassLink partner! Make sure ReadWorks is available on your launchpad in ClassLink! That’s why now is a great time to ask your school or district administrator or IT team to ensure ReadWorks is on the “approved” list of tools. Here are a few steps to ensure ReadWorks remains accessible to our students and educators:
“I have a connection to Yusra! Did you know there was a war in El Salvador before?” - Mariana “When do refugees get to go back home?” - Imani “This is like how in The Librarian of Basra there was fighting in her country too.” - Zion These types of rich comments and questions did not used to occur during my foundational literacy small groups. In fact, in my early days of my professional learning around structured literacy, there wasn’t much student discussion happening in my teaching at all. I was (and am!) completely in awe of the brain-changing power of phonemic awareness and phonics instruction for emergent readers. Especially because my teacher preparation program- like many others- did not address these core components of reading development, learning about structured literacy was completely transformational for me after years of “balanced literacy” practices. I was eager to support students to crack the code with my new toolbox for decoding instruction. The Science of Reading Beyond Phonics As a first grade teacher at the time, my whole group and small group instruction became characterized by phonemic awareness activities, letter:sound correspondence drills, elkonin boxes, word chains, blending lines, spelling dictation, and decodable texts. These are all evidence-based practices that I still use daily, but my overemphasis on them left very little space for comprehension questions, vocabulary instruction, and background knowledge building. I did not fully realize it at the time, but my enthusiastic and well-intentioned approach to foundational skill instruction was still not representative of the full breadth of skills required of a proficient reader. It also was not consistently grounding my students in the ultimate goal of reading-meaning. I’m glad that questions around the potential overemphasis on phonics have risen to the surface in the discourse around the Science of Reading. It’s clear that our students need and deserve reading instruction that addresses all strands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope. Still, that’s easier said than done when as educators, we are contending with jam-packed instructional blocks and countless competing academic priorities. Educators are also not being offered many instructional resources that authentically address both word recognition and language comprehension needs. Luckily, ReadWorks offers FREE nonfiction decodables that do just that! Not All Decodable Texts Are Created Equal  Decodable texts are a powerful component of effective literacy instruction for beginning readers, providing them opportunities to confidently solidify previously taught letter:sound correspondences and gain fluency. As decodables expert and author of Choosing and Using Decodable Texts, Dr. Wiley Blevins, states, “It’s in the application that the learning sticks. Decodable texts are the critical application tool.” But he also reminds and cautions us that decodables must be used for more than just phonics instruction! He shares that decodables can also be instructional tools for vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and syntax (2024). Unfortunately, not all decodables lend themselves to that work. I know my fellow early literacy teachers have all encountered decodable texts that were not designed beyond a lens of a particular phonics skill. I wish this example was more of an exaggeration, but unfortunately, it really isn’t. Why would a hot dog be on a cot in any situation? Why would it even potentially be on a log? Surely we can provide our students with short ‘o’ practice that isn’t quite so nonsensical. ReadWorks nonfiction decodables allow educators to bridge word recognition and language comprehension instruction instead of taking a myopic focus on one or the other. Students are invited to grapple with rich academic vocabulary as they read exciting texts about Simone Biles, extreme weather and faraway lands. As Dr. Julia Lindsey, author of Reading Above the Fray and expert collaborator on ReadWorks decodables, reminds us, the best decodable texts aren’t just decodable – they hold real meaning. They should contain engaging stories and be filled with interesting facts for students to learn. We should not be sacrificing meaning in the name of decodability, and with ReadWorks nonfiction decodables, we don’t have to! Cracking the Code While Making Meaning I now serve as a K-2 Reading Specialist and still provide direct, explicit instruction to target the lower strands of Scarborough’s Rope every day. I have the privilege of witnessing the impact of explicit, systematic phonics instruction on my students’ DIBELS data and in the moments they beam with confidence as they independently decode an entire sentence for the first time. When I use ReadWorks decodables, my students get ample phonemic awareness and phonics practice, rooted in the context of a rich nonfiction text. We warm up by quickly blending and segmenting words with the target skill. This image shows a review of the ‘ea’ and ‘ee’ spellings of long ‘e’ to prepare to read the decodable text about Yusra Mardini. Then we practice our continuous blending with words from the text, as well as review words with previously taught letter:sound correspondences.   ReadWorks nonfiction decodables allow me to provide explicit vocabulary instruction and activate rich background knowledge as I introduce the decodable text. Pre-teaching the word ‘refugees’ and explaining why Yusra Mardini had to leave Syria allowed my students to make brilliant connections to other global conflicts they already knew about, including one in a student’s own home country. We know that like Velcro, new knowledge sticks best to existing knowledge. This type of understanding just isn’t possible with decodables that lack the substance to serve as new pieces of Velcro for our students. This strategic background knowledge building packs an even more powerful punch when paired with ReadWorks Article-A-Day routine, which is topically aligned to the decodables.
My students then look out for the target phonics pattern as they read, while I provide supportive feedback around accuracy and fluency. Finally, we do some encoding as another chance to practice the pattern and orthographically map words from the text. Another added benefit of using a rich decodable text is that students have the opportunity to not just spell, but authentically write. I’ve been blown away by their thoughtful takeaways from these decodable texts. This level of thinking and learning simply cannot be compared to reading about a hot dog on a cot.  There is no question that our students need instruction in how to crack the code. It is their civil right and our responsibility as educators. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to use and create instructional materials that allow me and other early literacy teachers to support our students in becoming codebreakers within the context of rich, meaningful texts that are worthy of being in front of them. You can learn more about how to use ReadWorks decodables and explore a sample lesson plan here. Learn how to use aligned decodables in our new and updated Scope and Sequences page in the previous blog: Scope It Out: A Better Way to Plan with ReadWorks. Written by: Celestina LeeReading Specialist, First Grade Teacher, and ReadWorks Educator Support Specialist New for back-to-school 2025!Welcome to the new and improved Scope and Sequences experience on ReadWorks! We’ve made it easier than ever to plan with Article-A-Day and Decodable Texts. Whether you’re focusing on building background knowledge, vocabulary, or decodable reading practice, it’s all organized for you—by grade, topic, and month. You now have four ways to get started: • Topical Scope & Sequence • Vocabulary Scope & Sequence • UFLI-Aligned Decodable Scope & Sequence • Fundations-Aligned Decodable Scope & Sequence Each sequence is designed to support reading comprehension, vocabulary growth, and foundational skills—and you can jump in at any point in the year. Now available for all grades! |
